Early on, the animal Companion was essentially a second character sheet. It worked, and it was boring. Players treated the animal like equipment — a tool with teeth that you pointed at problems.
The fix was to stop asking what the Companion can do and start asking what the pair can do that neither could alone.
The Bond is a shared resource
Everything interesting in Age of Instinct comes out of that relationship: tracking, hunting, warning, sensing, protecting. The Bond deepens through use and through risk, and it is the route to becoming a Human/Animal Hybrid — the rarest thing a character can become.
The Companion is never disposable, because losing it costs the player something mechanical as well as emotional.
The Bond rewards playing to your animal's nature rather than against it.
Growth is earned in play, not bought with points between sessions.
Grounded, not magical
There is no spell list. Aurelia is dangerous because weather, hunger, injury and distance are dangerous. That keeps the game readable for complete newcomers: if you can imagine doing it, you can probably attempt it.